Ladnier Joins Front Office

The Nationals today increased the scouting manpower of their front office, installing Deric Ladnier as a national crosschecker and a special assistant to the general manager. I'm supposed to speak with Ladnier at 2 p.m., so further details will come. But here are the key points: This is an upper-level front office position, a newly-created role. (Nobody left the organization, in other words.) Ladnier, 44, who spent the last nine years as Kansas City's senior director of scouting, will have significant input on Washington's amateur drafting, which includes two top-10 picks in June 2009.

"He'll be heavily involved in, first of all, our draft," GM Jim Bowden said. "His track record in Kansas City has been phenomenal. He's a tremendous evaluator."

On Sept. 9, Kansas City GM Dayton Moore fired Ladnier, a move that surprised some familiar with the organization. Ladnier was responsible for the drafts that brought Alex Gordon, Billy Butler and Luke Hochevar into system, and his 2008 draft, headlined by the selection (and signing) of No. 3 pick Eric Hosmer, was well-regarded within baseball. At the time of his firing, The Kansas City Star wrote that while "the club received praise throughout the game for its success in this year's draft... the organization has few top prospects at the upper levels."

"Deric had a lot of passion, dedication and loyalty," Moore told The Star at the time. "I just felt that we needed to make a change. I wanted [assistant GM] J.J. [Picollo] running the day-to-day operation of the scouting department. It's as simple as that."

Bowden said the Nationals became interested in Ladnier from almost the minute he became available.

Ladnier began his scouting career in 1991 with the Atlanta Braves, and worked his way up to become director of the team's minor league operations by 1996.

After watching a #1 pick close out the defending World Champs last night in only his sixth major league appearance, I'm all for anything to make sure our scouting and cross-checking is as good as it can possibly be.

Two comments up...not mine, only a wanna be SC Nats Fan. I welcome Mr. Ladnier to the organization. It only cements the 'plan'. To build or not to build...that is the question. Build a solid foundation...and they will come.

I guess I'm all for amassing scouting talent in the hopes that doing so will eventually lead to more baseball talent, but is anybody else wondering how the new guy relates to Rizzo on the team's org chart?

Not sure if this has been posted before, but NBC4 is reporting that the stadium construction dispute has been settled and that the Nats will pay the $3.5 million in back rent. In return, the city will pay $4 million for stadium improvements including better elevators, escalators and scoreboards (not sure I noticed anything wrong with any of those things, but still ....)

Speaking of Nats news, I'd be interested to read an insider story about the baseball-only facility that Ryan Zimmerman, B.J. Upton, and Justin Upton are developing in Norfolk, as reported in the NY Times article below (see link). Might make a good blog entry here or on the MLB blog (hint hint).

another losser,where is mike rizzo? he was the main guy or not?.this can not be his pick,this looks wall street and politics between kasten and bowden next will be another red maybe how about ken griffe jr,jjajaja,loosers